8/10/09

Staying at the Generator Hostel. Not bad, but it was very noisy, and the rooms were quite ordinary.. The breakfast was sufficient (not tasty but filling). Biggest draw: Located next to the Tube. The biggest downside: The WiFi was very slow and expensive.

I've been up for nearly 40 hours straight, and believe it or not, I'm ready to hit the town.

During the marathon-long hours on the Deutsche Bahn, reflecting on my life, I thought about how as a young boy from 4 to 8, I traveled extensively throughout southeast Asia.

No, it wasn't the same conditions, but it was the same life applications.

Born in Hong Kong, my family and I traveled on a sailboat throughout several exotic ports of call in pristine places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia.I have personally seen world markets and capitalism operate hand and foot from street vendors and hawkers in open-air markets caught in a rut and living day-by-day, hoping to make enough to bring home food for the family of four.

When I was 12-years old, my family and I immigrated to the US. I was shocked and unadjusted when we settled in a small town in Southeast Georgia.

Since then we have become US citizens and upon graduation from high school, I decided I needed to return to traveling around the world.

I joined the Navy when I was 17, fresh out of high school and risen from the far, hidden reaches of a small, country town named Darien, GA., where the biggest industry was shrimping and crabbing and even that was dying away. I wanted to join the Navy because it was my way out and also because after being raised on the sea and living on a 40-foot yawl for most of childhood existence, I was naturally drawn to it and its calm solitude.

That's when I joined the Navy, and now I am on the cusp of retirement.

Within a month, I would be an MBA student at George Washington University.